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Sonic CD Review

Sonic the Hedgehog became the mascot of SEGA in 1991 with his first game and has since become a gaming icon. Fans of his franchise have played hours and hours of his games but some of them may have missed out on one because they didn’t own the SEGA CD. Sonic CD was released for the SEGA CD add on to the SEGA Genesis in 1993 which would be why some fans missed out on the game. It is the first time that Amy and Metal Sonic are seen in the franchise and now SEGA has brought the game back to life with a port of it on XBLA. It will be much easier on your wallet this time since you don’t have to pay 300$ this time to be able to play it.

Pros:

Classic Gameplay: Sonic CD has the classic feel of the genesis era and is a great port of the game. This game does feature a menu where you can select between new game, continue game, and time attack mode. If you continue your game it will be from the beginning on the level you left off on, since the game saves after each level, and time attack will have you trying to increase your score on the leaderboards by getting through the levels at supersonic speeds. You will even want to brake your controller while fighting some of the bosses just like back in the day.

Soundtrack: The music in Sonic CD is amazing just like it was back in the early nineties. The fan base of this game includes both the American and Japanese players so both soundtracks are included in the game and can be changed back and forth from the options menu.

Past and Future: Is this game you will find signs that have either past or future on them, and when running past them fast enough will send you either forward or backward in time. Depending on when you go forward in time and what you have done you could have a positive future with less enemies or a negative future that is more difficult. Being able to change the look, feel, and challenge of the level based off your actions is a fun feature that I highly enjoyed.

Tails: While adding the ability to play as tails after beating the game once is an awesome addition it does disable achievements. Let’s be serious though you have to play though the game quite a few times to experience everything anyway, so one playthrough as tails without the ability to get achievements is a good trade off to be able to use him.

Cons:

No Avatar Awards: Sonic CD doesn’t have avatar awards included in the game, and while that isn’t the biggest deal and I won’t take off any score for it I had expected it since almost all the other SEGA ports recently have had them. It would have been great to see a Metal Sonic avatar prop or something of that nature.

Special Stages: The special stages in Sonic CD aren’t near as easy to figure out what to do as the other classic special stages. While I know that Sonic two and three told you what you goal was, you don’t have that luxury here and you will be tasked with figure out what to do on your own.

In Conclusion:

For the asking price of five dollars you can experience a great game in the Sonic franchise and feel like a kid in the 90s. The graphics are still done well and being able to play either soundtrack makes it even more worth the money. It will take you quite a few plays though the game to experience everything and it does surprise me that it wasn’t a little more expensive. Not only can Sonic travel to the past, you can now relive it and travel back into the past with him.